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Migration News

Is this finally the year that Congress reforms U.S. immigration policy and provides a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country? It would seem so, given the various encouraging statements from Republican and Democratic leaders over the past week. The policy calculations seem favorable, too, with years of net-zero migration from Mexico and the prospect of reduced migration pressures in the future. However, what remains highly unpredictable is the political calculus on immigration, with dynamics at the national and local level potentially at odds with each other.

“There is an enormous amount of optimism right now in the bilateral relationship, and the reason of that is because there’s an idea that this is a new beginning,” said Duncan Wood, co-author of the Wilson Center report, entitled “New Ideas for a New Era”.

Andrew Selee of the Wilson Center noted that we might see a return of circular migration, which would benefit Mexican communities. "Now people who go to the US without documents know that returning to Mexico ends their options so they stay in the US. With visa options, they may choose to come and go again."

“Mexico is trying to be careful in terms of how it gets involved in the immigration debate,” said Christopher Wilson of the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. “It will talk about border security, trans-migration, issues like that, but Mexico will weigh its involvement in immigration very carefully.”

Dr. Blair A. Ruble will leave his position as director of the Center’s Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies to serve as the leader of the Wilson Center's newest initiative, the Global Sustainability and Resilience Program, which will study the impact of global changes on people’s lives, from their environment and health to their security and economic wellbeing.